Hogwarts: A Muggleborn's Tale
by TheStoryChoosesTheWriter
Summary: A Harry Potter next Gen fic following the life of a sweet Muggleborn hufflepuff girl who falls into the hectic embrace of the Potter-Weasley clan. R R :)
1. Stamp Stamp Clap

**Hey guys! I know I already have something like three ongoing fics that I haven't updated in months... sorry... I'm gonna try really hard to not let this one get thrown to the side, I've been mulling his over for months now and I'm gonna finish this thing if it kills me so seriously, feel free to bombard me with PMs and reviews in which you shout at me to hurry up and update - I mean only if you want to. I hope you enjoy it, this is my first next gen fic. For now I'm going to withhold shipping judgement, that is all.**

Stamp Stamp Clap

Karen McCarthy had always been a strange child. Ever since she could remember, strange things had happened; like that time she had turned her English teacher's hair blue just by thinking about it – that would teach him to keep going on about what the damn colour symbolised! Of course, there was no real evidence that it was her that had done it, but she knew. Weird stuff always happened around her, right when she wanted it too. Her parents had written it off as a child's imagination, but nevertheless they played along: "Look at Karen, our little witch," they would laugh. Oh how shocked they had been after her Hogwarts letter had arrived.

_Karen_

_We all miss you back home. It's good to hear that you're having fun. Is the Hufflepuff house nice? You said it was right next to the kitchens? Don't go in there without permission, now! We can't wait to hear about all the things you've learnt when you come home for Christmas – if you still want to come home for Christmas? Its strange not having our little Witch around all the time. Hope you figure out your internet and cartoon problem out soon... Maybe you can talk to your headmaster about having a TV room put in? Write back soon._

_Love_

_Mum and Dad (and Tibbs the cat) xx_

Karen smiled at the letter from her parents as she sat at the breakfast table with her friends. She missed her life back home. Though she loved everything about Hogwarts and was hardly ever bored with all the cool magical things to learn and play with, she missed things from the muggle world like the internet and cartoons; like she had told her parents in her last letter.

Though she understood that wizards had this superiority thing and didn't like to use things from the muggle world, she didn't think it would be that big of a deal to just have one little computer. Right? Sure, Wizards had no use for cars and airplanes when they can come and go with a flick of their wand, or Floo, or even broom. But oh how she missed the internet. Why did the magical world have to be so stubborn as to not take on such a wonderful invention?

Regardless, she knew she would survive until Christmas to get her cartoon and internet fix. In the mean time she had great friends and a lot of homework to occupy her. Just then, Lily Luna Potter, her best friend came and sat next to her. She had her eye on her brother who was sat over on the Slytherin table (houses mixing up at meals wasn't uncommon, not after the battle of Hogwarts) the look made her wary – James was planning something.

"You take care now, sweetie," Karen's mum told her, hugging her.

"Write us every chance you get," Her Dad reminded her as he messed up her hair.

"Yes, yes," Karen sighed and gave each of her parents a hug. "Love you!" She waved over her shoulder as she boarded the Hogwarts express, focussing on how much her life would change for the better by going to a magic school so she wouldn't break down into tears. "Mind if I sit here?" She asked of a ginger haired girl who was sat alone in a cabin.

"Not at all," the girl replied with a friendly smile and a gesture to the empty seat opposite her. Karen sat down where the girl had gestured and smiled awkwardly in return. "I have to warn you though," the girl said, "my annoying older brothers and cousins are sure to come in here looking for me some time soon." She pushed her hair behind her ears and continued speaking without giving Karen a chance to respond to her warnings, "I'm Lily by the way... Lily..." she hesitated to give her last name as if she thought it might affect the way Karen thought of her, "Potter," she said at last.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Karen, Karen McCarthy," Karen replied, offering her hand.

Lily looked surprised for a moment that Karen hadn't reacted to her last name but quickly recovered and shook the offered hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you too, Karen. I don't suppose you've been in the wizarding world long, have you?"

"No, not really," Karen sighed. "My parents are... Mu- what's the word?"

"Muggles?" Lily offered.

"Yes, my parents are Muggles. What gave me away?"

Lily smirked. "You didn't react to my surname... See, um... well, my Dad is something of celebrity in our world – he's over there look," she pointed to a man with unruly black hair and round glasses that framed bright green eyes. He had a strange scar on his forehead that Karen wouldn't really had noticed if she didn't see a few people that were stood close to the man and his family trying (and failing) to discretely stare at the man's scar.

"What did he do?" Karen asked.

Just then a smaller, scar-less, brown eyed version of the man Lily had pointed out as her father came into the room, having obviously heard their conversation, and began to explain in dramatic detail what Mr Potter had done to become famous.

"It started when he was just a baby!" the boy said, staring directly into Karen's eyes. "The evil wizard Voldemort attacked the house they'd been hiding in but Grandma Potter was too powerful for stupid old Voldemort and saved Dad. Everyone thought the evil pig was dead, but THEN," his voice increased in volume and his arms waved around as if to their own accord, "then, when Dad came to his first year of Hogwarts, He came BACK! He tormented Dad every year of his school until in his final year; there was this huge battle right on the grounds of Hogwarts. Kids and adults and even the centaurs worked together to defeat his army and our Dad defeated him, Voldemort died and the wizarding world was saved. No more stupid Tom Riddle!"

"James, I was going to tell it. Anyway, Dad didn't defeat Voldemort; he always says that Tom's curse reflected off of him and bounced back on Tom. Voldemort killed himself."

The boy, James, rolled his eyes. "Yeah Dad never tells it properly, Uncle Bill always tells it so much better.

Another boy who looked younger than James but looked very similar to him – he had green eyes but other than that, they might have been twins if it weren't for the obvious age gap – entered the room. He too, had obviously heard at least some of the conversation. "At least you weren't in the same room as Uncle George when he got drunk last Christmas... His version of events is just depressing... Then I had to tell Mum why I was having nightmares..."

Lily cringed, "Poor Uncle George."

"Greetings Potters," a ginger haired boy said as he ran into the now quite full cabin. "Potters friend," he nodded at Karen then turned to face James. "James, your Dad is the best!"

James smirked. "You wouldn't be saying that if you'd eaten his stew last weekend, I think he got mixed up between his potions and actual edible food."

The younger boy with green eyes glared at his brother. "James, don't be so horrible, Dad's been stressed with work – he's usually a really good cook."

James rolled his eyes, "Oh shut it, Albus; I was joking. Why is my Dad the best, Fred?" he asked of the ginger haired boy, Fred.

"He only went and gave my Dad the map for him to give to me to give to you," Fred explained excitedly.

"The Map?" All three of the Potters said in unison. James matched Fred's excitement, Albus sounded horrified while Lily just sounded confused. Karen had thought it best to sit and watch as the scene played out; hopefully things would eventually explain themselves.

"Mum would have kittens if she found out," Albus muttered.

"I thought Dad would never give that thing up," Lily added, "I thought he was going to frame it at one point."

"Auntie Ginny probably would have kittens if she knew, that's why he gave it to my Dad so I could give it to you," Fred explained. He took out an old looking piece of blank parchment and James looked at it as if it were a ticket for a private trip to Disney land. Without another word, the two boys ran off.

Albus looked to his little sister and hung his head in his hands.

"So they have the map, what's the big deal?" Lily asked.

"You don't understand. You've heard the stories; we are descended from two generations of Hogwart's greatest pranksters. Grandma Molly says that James is a lot like Grandpa Potter and he wants to live up to that reputation, and last year, Uncle George sent Fred a howler telling him how _proud_ he was to have received a letter saying Fred and James had somehow managed to make everything in the great hall float above everyone's heads!"

"I remember that," Lily interrupted. "I was at home when Aunt Angela came in all angry about Uncle George... Mum wasn't happy..." she smiled at the memory of her mother's anger directed at her older brother.

"Yeah... But now that they have the map, who knows what they'll do?" Albus sighed.

"Um... Excuse me..." Karen spoke up. "But... What is this map... it looked like an old piece of paper to me..."

"Oh of course, sorry Karen," Lily said, as if only just now remembering her new friend was still there. "The map is something our grandpa and his friends created while they were at Hogwarts... It's a map of the whole school that tells you where everyone is and where most of the secret passageways are," Lily explained.

"Cool," Karen said.

"You won't be saying that if you become the victim of one of their pranks," Albus mumbled. "I'm Albus by the way, though I'm sure you figured that out already..."

"Karen," Karen said, shaking his hand.

Just then a girl with bushy ginger hair poked her head through the door. "Albus there you are!" the girl sighed. "Hugo, Scorpio and I have been looking everywhere for you!"

"Rose!" Albus smiled. "Sorry, I got caught up in this thing with James and Fred... They have the map..."

Rose gasped. "Merlin help us," she laughed before waving at Lily and Karen and dragging Albus away.

"It was nice meeting you Karen," Albus said over his shoulder. "I'll see you around." And with that, Lily and Karen were finally left in peace.

The two girls had bonded after explaining their lives to one another. Each had led such a different life to the other – Karen having grown up in a relatively normal household while Lily had lived a life where she couldn't go shopping without being stared at (despite her father's best efforts to avoid that) – and quickly became best friends.

Though it took the first few weeks of her time at Hogwarts, Karen eventually got used to the amount of redheads at the school. Now, she felt that she would be uncomfortable if she didn't run into at least one Potter or Weasley kid at some point during the day. At least she had been sorted into Hufflepuff were she could find a retreat from the constant energy that her friends from that family seemed to have.

"Wait until my Father hears about this," James Potter was waving a piece of toast across the table to Scorpio Malfoy there was a tense moment of silence for the onlookers as the two boys stared each other down, as if getting ready to fight, until the two boys dissolved into laughter.

A lot of things like that seemed to happen around Hogwarts. There seemed to be a lot of inside jokes that existed solely within the wizarding community, leaving muggle-born's and half-bloods raised in the muggle world incredibly confused.

"Can get annoying, right?" Mindy Place, a muggle-born girl from Karen's dorm, said as the two boys continued to laugh over pretty much nothing.

"Try being friends with them," Karen chuckled. "And how much do you miss the internet?"

"OMG so much! I couldn't even tell you what I did with it but I need it!"

"I know right!"

The first years had flying lessons next period so Karen and Mindy found themselves walking toward the Quidditch pitch together before walking straight into a particularly ugly 3rd year Slytherin. "Get out of my way, mudbloods," he grunted, shoving them to the side.

Karen gave an odd smile to her dorm-mate as she noticed a few other muggle-born students watching in horror. Here was where the muggleborns could share their inside jokes and leave the others to be confused. The muggleborns and even some other students who were watching were stood with looks of pure horror – blood status had become less common place since the demise of Voldemort and his followers, but that only made displays of bigotry such as this all the more shocking.

Karen had the chance to turn this situation on its head and she wasn't going to let it go for anything. She slowly brought her hand up to her mouth spat on it before quickly wiping it all over the 3rd year's face. She then stamped her feet twice and clapped then repeated.

Stamp, stamp, clap.

Stamp, stamp, clap.

Mindy now returned Karen's smile and sang. "You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, somebody better put you back into your place!"

Then, all of the muggleborns joined in with the stamps and claps and sang along to the chorus. The song kept going until a teacher came along and sent them all off to their next class. Karen skipped off to her flying lesson with a huge grin on her face; she couldn't wait to put this in a letter to her parents.

**I'd just like to put this out there that I loathe the fact that JKR called Harry's kid Albus Severus but in the light of canon, I decided not to change it - too many arguments to be had over what to change it too, don't think I didn't spend hours of my life not trying to change the character's minds though; Albus is actually pretty attached to his name...**


	2. WiFi Needed

WiFi Needed

As the weeks passed by, Karen tried her best to throw herself into her classes. It wasn't too hard. School had always been a place where you had to read a book and copy notes down from a board; now – though there was still a lot of note taking – you had to levitate feathers and turn match sticks into needles. Even the note taking wasn't too bad – how could it be? When you're learning the history of magic in which dragons aren't fiction and goblins actually steal your gold (Only if you angered them).

Teddy Lupin, Lily's god-brother, often dropped by to Hogwarts - claiming he was not only the son of Aura Tonks and Marauder Moony but the God son of Harry Potter, therefore needed no invitation to a place such as Hogwarts - when he wasn't off doing something with his girlfriend, Victoire Weasley, he he made appoint to drop in and make sure his favourite (and only) sister and her friend were keeping up with their notes. He told them stories of the old history professor, Professor Binns, a ghost who had stuck around to teach generations of students' history – the wrong way. Apparently he had been spreading prejudices against goblins for decades and when the new Hogwarts headmaster got elected, Binns was cast out of the castle and a competent teacher had been brought in. Defence against the dark arts had, in the past, had a bad reputation when it came to the professor but after the war and Voldemort's death, Hogwarts had been having much better luck with its DADA staff. It didn't matter how many horror stories Teddy told them about the old teachers though, nothing could change the fact that everyone's favourite teacher was the Herbology professor, Professor Longbottom.

Not only were all of Professor Longbottom's lessons fun and educational, he always ended the lesson ten minutes early so they could sit down with a hot drink and talk about all that they'd learnt. It was after a Herbology lesson when Karen finally couldn't take it anymore.

"That's it!" she huffed, startling Lily who had been walking along with her nose stuck in a copy of Witch Weekly. "I can't deal with everyone's attitude toward muggle things. I've been here a month and because of that I've missed 4 whole Doctor who episodes AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS!"

Lily slowly put her magazine away into her bag and turned to face her friend who was clawing at her face and breathing rather heavily. "Care... Just... Just calm down, okay?" she said, restraining her hands so that she couldn't scratch at her face anymore. "I'll take you to the infirmary and Madame Abbott can give you a calming draught.

This only served to anger the little brunette who exploded in a manner that Lily thought rivalled even her grandma Weasley. "I DON'T NEED SOME CALMING POTION; WHAT I NEED IS INTERNET AND NETFLIX DAMN YOU!"

Just as Lily was desperately looking around for someone to help her restrain her friend of whom she was not convinced was fully sane, and take her to Madam Abbott, a Slytherin second year seemed to melt from the shadows.

"I heard the call of a fangirl," the Slytherin girl said. Her voice was quite similar to Luna Scamander's, she even had the same kind of dazed look in her eyes though they were an odd amber colour instead of the grey-blue that Luna's were.

"Come again?" Lily asked, dumbfounded.

"You are Karen, yes?" the girl asked, looking straight into Karen's crazed eyes. She nodded. "Come with me." Karen unquestioningly followed the strange girl right up to a solid wall and then a door appeared.

"What in the name of Merlin's soggy underpants?" Lily mumbled before running after her friend and following her and the Slytherin girl through the door and up a flight of flagstone stairs. They must have travelled at least seven floors judging by how tired they all were when they reached the top. "This room will solve all your problems," the Slytherin girl said, gesturing to the unappealing door before them.

To Lily, the staircase had been similar to the ones leading down to the dungeons – dark and even a little damp. Karen on the other hand felt as though she was floating up a staircase to heaven after being called 'fangirl' and led through a secret door. As she stepped through the old wooden door she knew she would have a hard time focusing on her homework now.

The room the girl had taken them to was filled with high tech computers and consoles. There were rows of the best TVs available with comfortable couches and conveniently placed muffliato spells so that one movie wouldn't disrupt another. All around there were students, mostly muggle born, glued to the screen in front of them and excitedly chattering to their neighbour. "What is this place?" Karen asked.

"It's the room of requirement," the Slytherin girl said. "I'm Katy by the way, I found this room in my first year and we all come here at this time every other day to catch up on news from the muggle world and watch our favourite TV shows. One of the older students has actually sent an inquiry to the ministry to try and set up a wizarding version of Facebook, you know, like the radio station but on the internet.

"Lily..." Karen whispered, "Is this real?"

"K, I have no idea what half of this stuff is but I do know that it's real and I really wanna try that thing out," Lily replied, pointing to an Xbox.

"Lils let me introduce you to muggle technology: un-magical magic."

The two girls spent the next couple hours of their day hid away in virtual universes and locked in online debates with other wizards and witched over the existence of nargles before one of the older students officially called curfew and sent them all off to bed.

When Karen returned to the Hufflepuff common room her first task was to find Mindy and tell her of the amazing room she'd been introduced to. Of course, Mindy was delighted to know she didn't have to wait until Christmas to catch up with the Great British Bake Off and couldn't wait to be able to go to the room the next day.

Over in the Gryffindor common room, Lily was telling her family of the wonders of Muggle technology and how it was ridiculous that Wizards hadn't taken on these devices in their everyday life. By the end of her rant, most of the common room had heard about the room of requirement and the use the Muggleborn's had found for it. One thing was for certain, the following day would see the room having to extend a great deal as a lot more curious children made their way up to the 7th floor.

Dear Mum and Dad (and Tibbs)

You wouldn't believe the luck I've had! It was after Herbology with Professor Longbottom, my favouritest teacher ever; when I finally decided I hated living away from the muggle world. I'd been repressing these feelings but I miss you guys, I miss the internet and most of all I was really angry over missing so much Doctor who. Then out of nowhere, Katy from Slytherin appeared and led me up this stairway that led to a room that could class as an internet cafe! You would love it, Mum, there was every console you could think of and any film ever made available on these surround sound HD 3D TVs. Lily was amazed, I can't wait for her to visit – can we take her to the cinema? Can't wait for Christmas so I can finally see you again.

Love you lots,

Karen xx

"You done with your letter, K?" Lily asked as Karen put down her quill.

"Yup, just telling my patents about the room."

"Me too, do you want to borrow an owl?"

"Sure, the school owls aren't as fast as yours," she laughed.

"No problem, hey how do you feel about you and your family coming to stay at my place for the New Year?" Lily asked timidly.

"Oh my god, really!" Karen's face split into a smile making Lily's apprehension melt away. "I'd love to! Lemme add that to the letter before I send it..."

The first flakes of snow were starting to fall across the Scottish highlands as Karen sent her letter out with Lily's owl and she knew that this was going to be one of the best Christmases ever.

**First up, I'm sorry about the last chapter - there should have been a time lapse break in there somewhere but fanfiction took it out for some odd reason... sorry...**

**Here I am updating already! Are you proud of me? :) **

**Sorry for the lameness of this chapter, It's kind of just a filler but an important one!**

_princesaangelbebe__: Thanks for your review, it is a really great song!_

_Wall With A Fez__: Why thank you dear, I look foreward to reading more of your reviews xx_


	3. Hallo-Warts

Hallo-warts

"OH GOD I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT HALLOWEEN!" Karen screamed as she spotted the notice reminding students of the Halloween banquette on the Hufflepuff common room notice board. As it was a Sunday and still early, her shocked exclamation wasn't well accepted. Especially not from the older years who suffered many late nights from studying.

"Calm down Karen," Mindy cautioned, "people are still sleeping!"

"Sorry, sorry," Karen whispered. "I can't believe I forgot about Halloween; I was just so excited for Christmas!"

"It's because you watch too much Netflix so you miss out on all the adverts reminding you to go out and buy Halloween sweets," Mindy joked, pulling her friend toward the portal so they could go to the room of requirement to watch said Netflix.

Karen allowed herself to be guided away from the notice board and was quiet until they approached Lily and a very eager Hugo. Hugo had not as of yet been to the room but had heard many a tale from Lily about the wonders of the internet and was excited to try it for himself. His experience, however, was delayed while Karen replayed her morning rant to her best friend who in turn, joined straight in.

"I've never had my own friend over for Christmas; we have such a big family there's usually no room for anyone," Hugo nodded along with this though quelled Karen's qualms of being in the way. "I was so excited to have you coming over I completely forgot about Halloween! Are you going to dress up?"

Karen giggled but didn't say anything. Mindy whispered something in her ear and the two girls were soon in stitches.

"Stop withholding information from me Karen McCarthy. I am your best friend!" Lily exclaimed.

"Okay, okay... Mindy and I are going as witches," Karen laughed.

"But like the Muggle version," Mindy added.

Lily, having used the internet, knew exactly what that entailed and laughed along with them. Hugo, on the other hand, was as in the dark as all the other pure-blood families. "Wait, what? You realise we don't need to dress up, right?"

"Oh Hugo, Aunt Hermione always dresses up! How are you confused?"

"Well I don't know what the muggle version of a witch it, do I? Why is it funny?"

"Oh come on, we can goggle image you a pic," Lily laughed, taking her cousin's hand and heading for the 7th floor.

"What does that even mean?" Hugo wailed as he was forcibly dragged up seven flights of stairs.

-0-

When the day of Halloween finally came to Hogwarts, most of the school (with the exception of a few stubbornly bigoted students) had been to the internet cafe in the room of requirement and chosen a muggle Halloween fancy dress. And so it was that the Hufflepuff common room looked something similar to a comic con gathering on the morning of October 31st.

"Your witch gag seems to be quite popular," Mindy pointed out to Karen as they walked down into the common room.

Karen could have watched a puppy being kicked and still not have stopped smiling because of the view that greeted her. "Oh I can't wait to get to the main hall if this is just the common room!" she exclaimed with poorly contained glee.

Lily had decided to dress up as Merida from Brave which resulted in Karen and Mindy being attacked by a very excited cloud of magically curled red hair. "I can't believe what's happening! The common room was like the world's biggest crossover show! Everyone's either dressed as their favourite TV show characters or, like, zombies and witches and stuff. It's brilliant!"

"Lessons should be interesting," Mindy laughed.

"I hope they don't make us change back into uniform," Karen frowned.

"Don't worry little witch," James said, him and Fred appearing behind the trio from a secret passage way concealed behind an old tapestry. He had heard from Lily that 'little witch' had been Karen's nickname at home and insisted on using it. "I don't think the teachers will be doing anything of the sort, Prof Longbottom gave us his support."

"Oh Merlin, James, what did you do?" Lily sighed.

"Ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies," Fred smirked.

Lily's question was answered as they walked into the hall. All the teachers, except Professor Longbottom, were covered in warts. The potions professor was looking angrily at a bowl of sweets that had a note saying 'trick or treat' attached.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes are proud to present its new line of muggle style Halloween sweets: Hallo-warts!" Fred announced as Neville began to hand out the antidote potion.

"Oh Aunt Angela is not going to be happy with you, Fred," Rose said as she made her way over from the Gryffindor table. "That said; I'm sure Dad will be stocking up on them."

"I wish I could send some to Mum and Dad back home," Karen sighed. "They'd probably get arrested or something though..."

"It's a shame your parents can't join in with all this stuff," Lily said thoughtfully. "You know, I should ask if they can come for Christmas too."

"Oh Lils that would be fantastic, thank you!"

"No problems, Care. Just watch my back for any food that might make its way onto my plate by the hands of those wannabe marauders tonight at the feast, yeah?"

"I've got your back as long as you have mine Lil."

**I realize that adding ANs everywhere is kind of pointless so I'm going to start replying to reviews via PM. I'll still reply to anon reviews at the end of each chapter though. ****Hufflepuff-Serpent****pointed out a few canonical errors in the last chapter that I have changed so thanks for that, ****Hufflepuff-Serpent****. I'll be skipping straight into December for the next chapter so stay tuned!**


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